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  • Expanded Broad Match and The Google 1-2 Punch | SEMClubHouse - Key Relevance Blog

    Because of the way Google Analytics works (tracking by last click only), many small businesses may not realize how deeply reliant on Google AdWords their sales are. This new issue is even worse than the Expanded Broad Match problem because there does not appear to be any way to prevent it... more

    Reviewed by flyingrose Oct 17 2007, 11:23pm ( 5 reviews ) • semclubhouse.com

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  • Rated by nixande on Mar 01 2008, 6:21am

    Interesting effect on display of adds of google searches. From the page: "We have come across a different issue that relates to the investigation of expanded broad match, and has wider-reaching repercussions for your PPC campaigns, as well as understanding oddities in interpreting Analytics. We have been seeing this issue for the last month or so (since Aug-Sep 2007), and according to the Google engineers with which I have discussed this: ā€oethe search results [ā€¦] are the result intended behavior. When determining which ads to show on a Google search result page, the AdWords system evaluates the userā€s previous search query as well as the current search query.ā€¯"

  • Rated by flyingrose on Oct 17 2007, 11:23pm

    Because of the way Google Analytics works (tracking by last click only), many small businesses may not realize how deeply reliant on Google AdWords their sales are. This new issue is even worse than the Expanded Broad Match problem because there does not appear to be any way to prevent it from affecting you. Mike Churchill is one of the most brilliant techs involved in ppc advertising - if he does not see a solution there may not be one. For now the best suggestion is to watch your spending and conversions. Ask yourself what you will do if traffic from AdWords becomes unprofitable. I will be posting strategies for quickly generating traffic as quickly as possible at http://ppcThink.com. From the paeg: "Search engine marketers (SEMs) researching the effects of Expanded Broad Match tend to make a lot of back-to-back queries to see which of their PPC ads are being displayed. Since this effect only comes in to play when you make a 2nd search within the search box on the results page of an earlier search, SEMs are likely to have been tripped up by the Google 1-2 punch. Both expanded broad match and the 1-2 punch have the effect of having an ad displayed for words that are not in the current search query, so many SEMs researching expanded broad match may actually have been seeing the effects of the 1-2 punch instead (or in addition). What Can You Do About It? Unfortunately, not a lot. There is nothing in the Google AdWords user interface that allows you to opt out of this new feature (nor the expanded broad match feature, which is dearly desired by many, but is unlikely to happen (See related artcile on Expanded Broad match) There is a partial defense: the traditional defense against expanded broad match is to use negatives in the campaign to explicitly request that your ad NOT be displayed when one of those related terms is searched for. Thus, if I were selling stainless steel knives, I might include "pots" and "pans" in my negative list to keep my ad from matching to searches for stainless steel pots. With the Google 1-2 punch, it appears that using a negative exact match phrase in the adgroup may prevent the ad from being displayed - even if that negated phrase is NOT the phrase being searched for in the second case! For example, I set up a test PPC campaign with a single phrase match KW "okra ice cream sundae". Searching for "okra ice" followed by "cream sundae" caused my ad to display (as expected). Here is the good news: Adding "-[sundae]" to my negatives list (which should prevent my ad from displaying if someone searched just for sundae also keeps my ad from displaying for the Google 1-2 punch. Curiously, using "-[ice]" keeps the Google 1-2 punch from happening, even if "ice" is not a part of the second search. This is a work-around, and it will add needless complexity to your PPC campaigns. It will also increase the processing for the Google servers as customers' negative lists expand extensively to counteract this issue. I firmly believe that the best solution is for Google to give AdWords customers the option of opting out of both expanded broad match and the Google 1-2 punch, and have the Google AdWords system work as advertised. We will continue to research this issue, and provide updates as we learn more."

  • Rated by DanAndJenn on Oct 15 2007, 11:09am

    interesting insight into some of the Google PPC magic voodoo. I'm SO glad we don't run PPC campaigns anymore. :-)

  • Rated by bhartzer on Oct 15 2007, 10:14am

    Google is combining the search queries from two successive searches when serving up the PPC ads. If a Google visitor makes a search, then uses the search box on the first search's results page, the original query AND the second query are BOTH used to determine the ad to display. My colleague Jim Gilbert refers to this as the "Google 1-2 Punch", and it can end up costing you money and leaving you confused if you don't take steps to combat this new algorithm change. Why is this a problem? Ads may be displayed for inappropriate searches, resulting in unnecessary expense for the advertiser.

  • Rated by storyspinner on Oct 14 2007, 9:04am

    Google's Expanded Broad match seems to be giving some search marketers a giant pain in the head. Have you noticed your click's going up for really odd words that weren't in your campaigns? Here's why.